A visit to China by Kazakhstan's long-standing leader is further reinforcing the growing Chinese role in the resource-rich Central Asian nation, with deals to be signed Tuesday on uranium supplies and financing for oil projects.
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s meetings with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders will in part showcase the shifting dynamics in Central Asia as China elbows the United States and even Russia to become a dominant force. China is now Kazakhstan’s second-largest import supplier, after Russia, its largest export market and increasingly a source of capital.
During the visit, the two sides are expected to sign a contract worth several billion dollars for long-term Kazakhstan supplies of uranium to China, part of a cooperation program with Guangdong Nuclear Power Co., the chairman of Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund, Kairat Kelimbetov, told the official news agency Kazinform.
Also to be agreed on is a $1 billion plan for the Export-Import Bank of China to finance construction of an oil refinery in the Kazakh city of Atyrau, on the Caspian Sea, Kelimbetov said. That is part of a $4 billion program to modernize the country’s three refineries.
The deals add to China’s already extensive involvement in the Kazak economy, from their $20 billion in trade last year to various railway, road and construction projects. Among them is a bitumen factory to help pave a highway to run from China to Western Europe.
Economic ties stretch beyond big state companies to private firms. In comments to China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported last week, Nazarbayev urged more Chinese investment in his country and praised the more than 1,000 Chinese companies there for spurring development.
Kelimbetov said Kazakhstan is also keen to obtain additional credits from Chinese banks through the regional Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping dominated by Russia and China that also includes Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
